KUALA LUMPUR – Global airlines’ passenger traffic demand recorded a decline of 75.6% last year from 2019, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In a statement today, it said the global passenger traffic results for 2020 showed the sharpest drop in history for revenue passenger kilometres, which fell 65.9% from a year ago.
“Capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, declined 68.1%, and load factor fell 19.2 percentage points to 62.8%.
“Domestic demand in 2020 was down 48.8% from 2019. Capacity contracted by 35.7%, and load factor dropped 17 percentage points to 66.6%.”
IATA director-general and chief executive Alexandre de Juniac said: “Last year was a catastrophe. There is no other way to describe it.
“What recovery there was over the northern hemisphere summer season stalled in autumn, and the situation turned dramatically worse over the year-end holiday season, as more severe travel restrictions were imposed in the face of new outbreaks and new strains of Covid-19.”
IATA said the baseline forecast for 2021 is to record a 50.4% improvement on 2020 demand, bringing the industry to 50.6% of 2019 levels.
“While this view remains unchanged, there is a severe downside risk if more severe travel restrictions in response to new variants persist.
“Should such a scenario materialise, demand improvement could be limited to just 13% over 2020 levels, leaving the industry at 38% of 2019 levels.” – Bernama, February 4, 2021
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